Trump looks worse tonight on Russia stuff than before, seemingly because of his congressional allies’ leak of the comey memos,1/
(and, of lesser import, Comey, who wasn’t having the best week with book tour, looks better 2/2
what it brings back is the utter fixation of the Trump/Flynn team in the run up & immediate aftermath of the inauguration with Putin.
it was palpable at time & disturbing. it was an utter fixation. they were thinking of making first trump foreign leader visit w Putin
some of it dissipated by the time flynn was fired. but it was very intense in the weeks around the inauguration
see this, from 1/17/2017, when UK paper reported Trump thinking of making first foreign leader summit with Putin.
see Kremlin readout of Trump Putin call 1/28/2017, remember waiting hours for US readout, turned out US stopped tape en.kremlin.ru/events/preside… 
was obvious to me then, &has become only more so, that the Putin fixation was abnormal &was going to consume & possibly end trump presidency
not just from above. from so many players in trump orbit, particularly flynn, seemingly obviously compromised by russia.
with his plea deal, Flynn has disappeared from the headlines, but he was so clearly compromised from before they took office
whatever he tells Mueller is among the information most interested to see. did Trump direct him what to tell Kislyak abt sanctions?
did Kushner direct him, with Trump’s blessing? Did they tell him to deny it? Is that why Trump asked Comey to let it go?
think the answer to most of above is probably yes. at some level, Flynn was directed and Trump possibly via Kushner directed him.
that would explain why Flynn got such a light plea deal. because the signs he was possibly more deeply compromised by Russia were evident
why single out Flynn, when manafort, papadopoulos, stone, page, also under investigation. because it was ideological, with his career
experience, rising to DIA chief, he should have known better. he can’t say he was a naif. or a jaundiced political operative.
his suck up to putin as answer to US problems w ISIS, etc. was taken with open eyes, and that is in large part why he got picked by trump
was perhaps the central trump foreign policy message. suck up to putin to kill isis and other countries screwing US.
and for people like papdopoulos who joined campaign, their obsession with setting up Trump Putin meeting? they took it from the candidate
the coffee boys understood from spring 2016 trump had a strange putin obsession. not sure it was their own
the Comey memos reenforce that, how obsessed Trump was with Putin, from time he took office
